408 BRITISH BIRDS. 



to have two notes besides its song and alarm-note. The most frequently 

 heard of these resembles the sound of hweet-hweet-hweet very vigorously 

 repeated, and is generally uttered when the male and female are chasing 

 and toying with each other in some low bush or underwood. The other 

 is a cha-cha-cha, very similar to the chirp of a Sparrow. 



Like the Goldcrest and the Wren, the Whitethroat when pursued hides 

 itself in the cover, and if chased will always contrive to keep on the side 

 of the hedge furthest away. You may follow it backwards and forwards, 

 but rarely will it be induced to leave the cover, and its harsh notes are the 

 only sign of its presence. 



By the beginning of May the Whitethroats are in pairs ; and soon after 

 this date their flimsy net-like abode may be found. The nest is placed 

 at different elevations from the ground. Sometimes it is found amongst 

 the brambles creeping in wild confusion over a waste bit of ground ; at 

 others it is seen in the dense whitethorn or hazel-hedges, in the tangled 

 grass growing round stumpy bushes and shrubs, amongst nettles and 

 other coarse vegetation, and has been known to be built in the heaps of 

 hedge-clippings left in little-frequented corners of gardens and orchards. 

 The nest is made of fine dry grass-stems, and is lined with a few fibrous 

 rootlets and a quantity of horsehair. Although so slight and loosely put 

 together, the Whitethroat's nest is a very pretty one, and may generally 

 be distinguished from the nests of allied birds by its greater depth. The 

 eggs of the Whitethroat are from four to six in number. Some specimens 

 are buffish white, with most of the spots underlying and violet-grey in 

 colour; others are pale bluish white, mottled, blotched, and speckled with 

 yellowish brown, and with large underlying spots of violet-grey ; whilst 

 others are pale green, sparingly marked with olive-green. Some speci- 

 mens of Whitethroat' s eggs are much more richly marked than others. 

 I possess one which has the larger end boldly marked with large brown 

 spots. In some eggs the spots are evenly distributed ; in others they 

 form a zone round the larger half of the egg ; and in others they are all 

 confluent on the large end, forming a round mass of colour. They 

 measure from '8 to '65 inch in length, and from *6 to '5 inch in breadth. 

 Certain eggs of the Whitethroat closely resemble the eggs of the Dartford 

 Warbler ; but, as a rule, the eggs of the latter species are never so green. 

 From the eggs of the Lesser Whitethroat those of the Common White- 

 throat may be distinguished by never having the ground-colour so pure 

 and the markings so rich a brown or so clearly defined. 



The food of the Common Whitethroat during the first month or so of 

 its sojourn here consists almost exclusively of insects ; and on this food 

 its young are reared, especially on the fly popularly known as " daddy 

 longlegs," and which often swarms to an alarming extent in dry summers. 

 In the fruit-time, however, the Whitethroat visits the gardens for currants 



